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    	  <h2><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#ffffff">
    	  &nbsp;Contract
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<a name="definition"><h2>Definition</h2></a>

<p class="Para">A contract is the declaration of a datum required for the execution of an activity, i.e. a factory component or task.</p>
  
  
<a name="motivation"><h2>Motivation</h2></a>
<p class="Para">A contract is a visible piece of information required to execute an activity. The set of contracts of an activity encapsulates internal information and represents the dependencies with other activities.</p>

<a name="structure"><h2>Structure</h2></a>
<p class="Para">Contract properties:</p>
<ul CLASS="UnorderedList">
    <li CLASS="Item">It has a mode: Input / Output / Input-Output</li>
    <li CLASS="Item">It is mandatory or optional</li>
    <li CLASS="Item">It is is a key/value association</li>
    <li CLASS="Item">A value has a type that can be simple (e.g., a string value), complex (e.g., a list) or a reference (e.g., a domain model reference)
    <li CLASS="Item">It can have a default value</li>
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